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Becoming Urban Wild

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As part of the Wildlife Trusts 'Every Child Wild' campaign Education Officer at Gibraltar Point Vicki Bush looks at ways to get wild in an urban environment.

Whenever I hear about being ‘wild’ the first things that come to mind are woodlands and standing on top of mountains. Living in Skegness, these things are not really on my doorstop, so I decided to head out around town and see what wild things I could discover near my home.

I am lucky enough to live near a public footpath that, I’ll be honest, I have never before ventured along but as it looped around the housing estate, it created a portal of trees into another world. I found myself a bench, sat down and closed my eyes, only to be surrounded by a symphony of bird song. It was quite a loud symphony with the crows and geese flying over competing to see who could make the most noise, but at that moment I could have been in the middle of the wilds for all I knew. It was such a nice place to wander around and at this time of the year I was surrounded by beautiful autumn colours, which gave me a great idea of having an autumn hedgehog themed Nature Tots. I got about collecting up some leaves to make a wild art hedgehog and seeing what materials I could find for making hedgehog homes. On the day the Tots had great fun collecting all the different colours and wild things we could use to make our hedgehog homes and leafy hedgehogs. Not to forget that we had the best time just running about and kicking the leaves up into the air.

I didn’t have to go far from my home to discover an amazing wild place and to get some ideas for wild activities I could do with my Nature Tots and neither do you. Why not head out into the garden or your local park and see what wild things you can discover.

Here some ideas to get you started:

• How many different colours/textures can you find?
• How many different wild sounds can you hear?
• Collect wild materials to take home and make festive decorations.
• Create a journey stick.
• Find the very best stick you can find, no bigger than your arm. Wrap it in wool or put elastic bands around it and as you explore collect different wild memories to attach to it to help you remember your wild urban adventure.

Every Child Wild

Children are happier, healthier and more creative when they are connected to the natural world. This should be an option not just for a few, but for every child in the UK. Click the link below to learn more about our campaign to get every child wild.